


In Name Only

by vamplover82



Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-14
Updated: 2007-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-05 15:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vamplover82/pseuds/vamplover82
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pete's shadow is misbehaves, and he figures out a way to stop it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Name Only

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and con crit. are much appreciated.

"My shadow's following me."

Upon reflection, Pete thought that maybe he should have phrased that a little differently, seeing the looks it got him. One that made him feel like a complete idiot and two that were clearly questioning his sanity. He wasn't sure which was worse.

"Okay, Pete. You know shadows tend to do that, right?" Patrick was clearly trying to be nice about it, but he still came off as really patronizing.

"Yes, Patrick, but this isn't normal. It's like, not moving at the same time as I am. And it keeps moving my shit around." No one looked particularly convinced by this. Pete sighed. "Look, forget I said anything. I was probably just tired and my mind was playing tricks on me."

He made his way back to his bunk, ignoring the looks the others exchanged. Apparently he was going to have to convince them of his sanity one by one. Because really, Pete knew it wasn't just the trick of a tired mind. His damn shadow had hidden everything from his mp3 player to his stash of condoms. This had resulted in a bout of paranoia that had Pete constantly looking at his own shadow.

The couple of times he had actually seen it doing something, he hadn't been able to stop it. He couldn't seem to move fast enough to catch it, and he just had to watch it do stuff completely independently of him. Of course, it always seemed to behave when anyone else was around.

Sometimes, though, Pete would have sworn that it was smirking at him. Obviously he couldn't see the smirk, but he knew it was there anyway. The damn thing was awfully cheeky.

So the next day, Pete decided to try to trick it into doing something in front of Joe. He put the belt that he wore at every show out on the couch in their bus as soon as he got up and then went to join Joe for breakfast. Pete sat so he could see the belt out of the corner of his eye, and Joe was fortunately already facing in that direction. It was kind of the perfect trap, really, since his shadow always seemed to move things he needed in the near future. Although Pete normally would have been talking a mile a minute, even in the morning, he kept mostly silent to minimize the potential for distractions.

"What's up with you this morning? You've hardly said a…" Joe trailed off when Pete clutched his shoulder, drawing his attention to the moving belt. He could do little more than stare as Pete's shadow took off running toward their bunks.

"So, do you believe me now?"

"Uh…"

"I'll take that as a yes. Now you've gotta help me convince Patrick and Andy."

"Okay," Joe said faintly.

"Awesome." Pete smiled happily and shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

When they made a stop at a gas station a couple of hours later, Pete took the opportunity to drag Joe over to the other bus with him.

"I wasn't just making it up; Joe saw it, too."

Patrick and Andy just stared at him, and he got a really strong sense of dejá vu.

"Really, guys. His shadow picked up his belt and ran with it while we were eating."

"Exactly." Pete sounded pretty pleased.

"Alright well, what do we do about it?" Patrick finally asked.

"Help me find my mp3 player?"

"How is that gonna help anything?"

"Uh, I'll know where it is and not bug you about it or steal yours?"

Patrick sighed. There really was no dealing with Pete when he got like that.

"Look, obviously I don't know what to do, or I'd have done it." The frustration was evident in Pete's voice.

"Fine, let's go find your mp3 player then."

Although they did eventually find it in Pete's pile of dirty laundry, it didn't stay found for long; the next day, it was gone again. Stuff kept disappearing for another week, until one day when he and Andy were just hanging around on his bus.

"Shit man, you've gotta hear this song. I just put it on my…fuck, my mp3 player. Which probably disappeared again already." Pete went to his bunk to make sure it wasn't where he'd left it, but to his great surprise, it actually was. "Man, you must be good luck or something cause it was actually where I left it."

"Of course I am, for I am Super Andy, bringer of good luck!"

Pete chuckled, punching Andy in the shoulder. "Whatever you say, dude. But here, listen to this song."

 

**********

 

Apparently Super Andy wasn't far off, though, because Pete started to notice that his things stayed where they were when Andy was around. He was pretty sure no one else had noticed, so he kept quiet about it and just started hanging around Andy a lot more.

It didn't take Andy long to figure out that Pete was hanging around him more than usual. Of course, it was pretty obvious when Pete practically insisted on following Andy to his bus after a show. Especially when Pete tried to crawl into his bunk with him.

"What the hell are you doing, Pete?" Andy sounded really tired, and that was fine with Pete; he was pretty tired himself.

"Uh, sleeping?"

Andy just glared.

"Alright, alright. My stuff doesn't disappear when I'm around you. Actually come to think of it, I haven't seen my shadow do anything at all weird when you're around."

"Oh God, this means I'll never be able to get rid of you, doesn't it?"

"Yup." Pete gave him a cheesy grin.

"Fine, just get in here. But you'd better let me sleep."

Pete crawled in and pushed up against Andy, settling in quickly. He must have been really tired since he actually fell asleep right away.

 

**********

 

This continued for a couple of days, until Andy got a little bit fed up with Pete being around all the time.

"For the love of God, Pete, can't I get a minute alone?"

And yeah, maybe Pete was taking it a little too far, what with following Andy as he was going to the bathroom. "Uh…"

Andy threw his hands up in annoyance. "Just wait outside, okay?"

Pete nodded. Andy didn't say anything when he came back out, and Pete thought that he was maybe the best friend ever. Not many people would put up with his bullshit 24/7.

For as much time as they'd spent together before this, however, Pete didn't really seem to have gotten to know Andy very well. Sure, he knew a bunch of random shit, but he hadn't known, for example, anything about Andy's daily routine. How he always got up for a glass of water in the middle of the night, or how he would multitask in the morning, trying to brush his teeth and fix his hair at the same time.

Pete was most amused by the fact that Andy would always roll over and hug him upon waking up in the morning. Seemed that sharing a bed made him more affectionate. It was really kinda nice to find out new things about someone he thought he knew so much about. Made life interesting, anyway.

Once in awhile, when Andy absolutely insisted on time away from him, Pete would put his new knowledge to good use. Like when he set up a holder thing in Andy's bunk to put a bottle of water in so Andy wouldn't have to get up in the middle of the night. Andy had given Pete a surprised 'thanks' when Pete showed it to him. Pete was sort of proud of that; he hardly ever managed to surprise Andy.

At any rate, things were going along just fine until they finally got a chance to go home for a couple weeks. Naturally, Pete had just gone with Andy, not even bothering to stop by his own place. Andy didn't even question it at this point, just told him that Hemingway had to sleep in the living room, which was fine with Pete.

The thing that really mucked up the whole situation was what happened when he went to take a shower that first night back. The bathroom was off of Andy's bedroom, and Pete had just about finished drying off after his shower when he heard a loud moan. Oh man, Andy wouldn't…would he? Surely not when he knew Pete was right there.

"Pete, yes."

Pete was sure his eyes couldn't have gotten any wider. He stood there for a moment, unsure what to do, while Andy kept on moaning his name. Pete finally opened the door and slowly poked his head out. Andy was sitting on the bed, flipping through a comic book.

"You fucker! You really had me going for a minute there."

Andy just smiled. "Take it as a hint, maybe? Some of us like a little time alone for such things, you know?"

Yeah, Pete got it. "I'll be in the spare room?"

"Cool. See you in the morning."

Pete spent the night in the spare room, but he didn't sleep very well at all. Apparently he had gotten used to sharing a bed, which he hadn't ever really done much before.

 

**********

 

In the morning, Andy was a lot more laid back than he had been in awhile. Hell, he even made Pete breakfast. Of course, it was over said breakfast that he insisted Pete go back to his own apartment to get some food for the dog.

"Come with me?"

"Can't, man. I've got to take care of a few things today."

Not even a pout would make him budge, so Pete ended up having to go by himself. He watched his shadow more closely than he'd had to in quite awhile, but for some reason, it didn't do anything abnormal, even though he had all sorts of random crap lying around, just waiting to be moved. Apparently whatever had been up with his shadow was fixed.

Yet Pete still gathered up some dog food and clean clothes and went back to Andy's place. Even when Andy got home, Pete didn't say anything. And maybe he felt a little guilty about that, which may have manifested itself as him doing laundry and ordering dinner from Andy's favorite place that delivered.

Seriously, it was getting a little weird to have Andy giving him strange looks all the time. Couldn't he just do something nice for his friend? Apparently not without the strange looks. Not that it bothered Pete overly much. Especially not when Andy didn't object to sharing a bed again that night.

 

**********

 

For days after the discovery about his shadow, Pete felt…on the verge of something. It was that feeling he got when he knew something big was going to happen, probably really quickly. Kind of like when he- oh shit, kind of like when he fell in love.

And there was that 'bang!' moment, knocking him pretty much head over heels as he sat and stared at the book he'd been trying to read for the past half hour. Because seriously, Andy? That just wasn't how things worked for him. He never took a long time to fall for someone, and he certainly didn't go around falling for his friends. Except for the fact that he obviously had; it was pretty much the only explanation for how he'd been acting lately.

So what happened next almost had him believing that someone out there had it in for him. Andy walked in the door a moment later, humming at first and then singing the end of a song.

_Tell me quick, ain't love a kick in the head?_

"What's with you?"

Pete realized that his jaw was kind of hanging open a little. He snapped it closed, trying to look less flustered than he felt.

"Nice song choice."

Andy laughed. "Patrick's been singing it nonstop. It kind of got stuck in my head."

Pete just nodded.

"Seriously, what's up with you? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Come here for a minute."

Andy went over and sat on the edge of the couch when Pete pulled him down. Pete had never liked being flustered, and this situation was no different. So he did what he usually did; he took what was causing the feeling and just faced it head on. He grabbed the back of Andy's neck and pulled him down into a somewhat sloppy kiss. Andy kissed back for a moment before pulling back and standing.

"I gotta go." He was out the door before Pete could even try to explain.

Pete wasn't sure what to do after that. All he could think of was to call Patrick, but of course then he'd have to explain what had happened. Which was why it was almost half an hour before he actually got up the nerve to do so.

"I think I fucked up," he said as soon as Patrick picked up.

"How so?" Pete was continually amazed at Patrick's ability to just hear him out calmly.

"I kissed Andy and he ran out."

Patrick was quiet for a minute. "Well, that would explain some of what he said."

"He's there?"

"Yeah, apparently I'm the go-to guy. Don't even think about coming over here, though. He needs time to sort shit out."

Damn, Patrick knew him way too well. "But-"

"Pete, no." Patrick's voice lowered. "Look, I think it's just that he thinks you're fucking with his head or something. It doesn't really seem like a gay freakout or anything. In which case, it's really good to know that this isn't just some weird mind game."

"How did you-?"

"Come on, Pete. You wouldn't have called me about it if it was."

"Yeah. Should I go home or something?"

"That might not be a bad idea."

"Okay."

"Look, it's just for awhile. It'll be alright, Pete."

Pete figured he must have sounded really dejected if Patrick thought he needed that reassurance.

"I suppose."

"It will, trust me. I'll talk to you soon, okay?"

"Alright. Bye."

"Bye."

Pete gathered his stuff up quickly and headed back to his own place, where he kind of just holed up and lay in bed for the rest of the day. He must have dozed off, though, because he woke to someone pounding on his door. At 10 o'clock at night. Great.

He got up and went to the door, expecting Patrick to be there wanting to _talk_ about it. Instead, he was surprised to see Andy standing in the doorway.

"You can come back to my place."

That was _really_ not what Pete was expecting. Andy pushed past him, still talking.

"I don't want to kick you out when you've got that stupid problem with your shadow, even if you may or may not be doing some strange mindfuckery thing."

"The shadow thing stopped a week ago."

Andy had been pacing the living room, and that definitely stopped him in his tracks. "Then why the hell were you still staying at my place?"

Pete opened his mouth to answer, but Andy cut him off. "You mean you really weren't just trying out a new form of mindfuck? Because Patrick didn't think you were, but I didn't really believe him and-"

Pete cut Andy off with a kiss that lasted significantly longer than the last one. "Not fucking with you," he finally said when they pulled apart. "I wouldn't mess with our friendship like that."

"Uh…so are you gonna come back to my place, then?"

That was the best suggestion Pete had heard all day.


End file.
